Mathis Altmann – «we don’t work»

In his new series of LED wall sculptures and illuminated signs, he morphs punk kitsch nostalgia with tech glamour fetishes. Corporeal bodies fragment into pixelation and digitized abstraction. In defense of non-compliance, the artist creates absurd aberrations of the branding strategies of a global co-working company. Defiance is an old dance, showcasing disintegration as some kind of progress. In this Ballardian slapstick comedy, success and failure are superimposed.

Mathis Altmann currently lives and works in Berlin and Zurich. In 2011, he received a BA from the Zurich University of the Arts, where he has taught since 2016. His work has been shown at The Luma Foundation, Zurich (2020); Mécènes du Sud, Montpellier (2019); Istituto Svizzero, Milan (2018), MAAT, Lisbon (2017); Swiss Institute, New York (2016); Palais de Tokyo (2016); and Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg (2015). He has been awarded the Manor Art Prize (2021), the Prix Mobilière (2016), the Swiss Art Award (2015), and the ZBK Art Award (2013). In 2021, his work will be shown at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2021) and Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2021). On the occasion of Mathis Altmann’s solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2021), Lenz Press will publish the artist’s first monograph.